Popular
Religion or Authentic Discipleship?
Mark
6:53-56
Introduction:
Frank Abagnale Jr. was a brilliant young man, who got off to a rather dubious
start (Remember the movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, Catch
Me if You Can). He learned from his father the art of the “con” and began
as a teenager to put it into practice. Once, on the first day he was in a new
school, he pretended to be the substitute French teacher, and got away with it
for a while. He pretended to be an off-duty pilot and got free rides in the
jump seat of airlines, reportedly traveling over a million miles before he was
caught. He also became an expert at falsifying checks and was eventually caught
by the FBI, and sent to prison. Later he got an early parole from prison and
was recruited to help the FBI in detecting false checks and catching those who
were forging them. He knew what to look for. In order to discern what is
“false” we need to carefully study what is authentic. There is a
disparity between popular “religion,” and the call to authentic discipleship
that we see in the gospels. Mark is making it clear that the way of a
Christ-follower is not going to be all gentle seas and green pastures. We see
that in…
The
Context: After the miracle of the loaves and Jesus walking to them on
the lake, He guided them to their destination. He has a plan (53)! “…they
had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore.”
Jesus
had sent them out onto the Lake, and then, in their
frustration and exhaustion, He came to them on the water, revealing His glory
in His divine power, speaking words of life and hope to them: “Take heart,
it is I, do not be afraid!” The Great I AM was present, and He was
strengthening their faith, revealing truth, leading them deeper. He is
continuing to teach them and to prepare them for the mission that would soon be
entrusted to them: bringing the Gospel of Jesus to the ends of the earth. They
needed to grow. What does it mean to follow Him? We’re learning it is more
often stormy seas and desert roads where we grow, learning to know Him better
and trust Him more. Jesus was revealing Himself and teaching the disciples,
preparing them for the ministry they would have after His ascension.
The BIG Idea:
Jesus is the revelation of God, able to bring healing and life to all who
believe. We’ll consider 1) Popularity; 2) Persistence; and 3) Power; let’s consider
first…
I. Popularity:
Many were looking to the Lord to meet their temporal needs (54,55a).
54 And
when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized
him 55 and ran about the whole region and began to
bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was.
Notice the contrast here between the experience the disciples just had on the
lake, and the people in the region of Gennesaret. Jesus came to the disciples
in their need, walking on the water, and they didn’t recognize Him. They
thought they were seeing a ghost! Instead of relief and joy their first reaction
was fear. They did not recognize Him. They hadn’t understood the
loaves, and they had no expectation that they were never out of His line of
sight, never somewhere where He could not come to them in their need. In
contrast, as soon as Jesus and His disciples got out of the boat, the
people immediately recognized Him. He
was known to them, His reputation preceded Him, and they knew this was the
miracle worker Jesus, the One that could help those in
need.
Have you ever been near a famous person
and not recognized them? Many years ago Mary Ann and I were at a marriage
conference and got in an elevator with a rather friendly guy. He asked us how
the conference was going and made some small talk. I think one of us finally
looked at his name tag and we realized it was Dennis Rainey, the Founder and
main speaker of the Family Life conferences! We suddenly stopped chatting! Another
time at WTS, a big guy say next to me in class… I later learned he was former All-pro
defensive tackle Joe Erhman! The crowds immediately recognized Jesus.
Mark wants to remind us of the dullness of the disciples more than the
spiritual acumen of the crowd. It is probable that very few in the crowd had
a right under-standing of who Jesus is and why He came. But the point of
the contrast is that the disciples should have been further
along in their understanding! Jesus’ focus was on preparing a relatively small
group of followers to take a key, foundational role in the church, after the
cross / resurrection / Pentecost. Their faith needed to be sure before they
could proclaim the Big idea seen here, that is, *Jesus is the revelation of
God, the One who is able to bring healing and life to all who believe.
II. Persistence: If
we care about people we will want to do all we can to bring them to Jesus (55).
What did the people do when they realized Jesus was there? “[They] ran
about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever
they heard he was.”
You have to admire the persistence of these people in Galilee who were running
around bringing the sick to wherever they heard Jesus was! This indicates
commitment, and caring for their needy friends, bringing them to the One who
could help! It might have been easier to stay at home, or to even visit their
friend and let them know they should be alert in case Jesus passed by. But they
persisted, they got their sick friends, and brought them to Jesus. That
kind of caring takes diligent effort, intentionality.
A common phenomenon in nature is
“the path of least resistance.” Electricity moving through a circuit will
travel where it has the “easiest” route... Rivers always travel around a
mountain because it is easier than going through one.
Frequently people are like that too. It is easier to sit in front of the TV
than to care for a neighbor’s needs… It is easier to get angry at your mate and
let that anger diminish (or smolder) over the course of time rather than sitting
down and working the problem through… And so we find that humans are prone to
“take the path of least resistance.”
Here, the people didn’t only
do what was easy. They ran and brought people to Jesus. Mark is calling us to
the path of greatest persistence, not least resistance! We should be
persistent (but not pesky!) in seeking to bring our friends, relatives, and
neighbors to Christ. *He is the revelation of God, able to bring healing and
life to all who believe.
III. Power:
Jesus is the Way to Life, He alone is able to Save (56).
56 And
wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in
the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his
garment. And as many as touched it were made well.
We frequently saw powerful wind storms while we were in Maine… Nor’easters… some
toppled trees that had stood tall and strong for a hundred years. The
power of those storms was evident in the damage they caused, one left some
people without electricity for a week or more! Relatively speaking, Such storms
are a mild show of power compared to what we find in nature. One astounding
demonstration of power in nature occurred on May 18, 1980, when Mt. St. Helens
in Washington State exploded…
…At 8:32 A.M. the explosion ripped
1,300 feet off the mountain with a force of ten million tons of TNT, or roughly
equal to five hundred Hiroshimas. 60 people were killed, most by a blast of
300-degree heat traveling at two hundred miles an hour. Some were killed as far
as sixteen miles away. The blast also leveled 150-foot Douglas firs, as far as
seventeen miles away. A total of 3.2 billion board-feet of lumber was
destroyed, enough to build 200,000 three-bedroom homes…
I
don’t know about you, but I can hardly comprehend such power! As awesome as
that is, that power is less than a flicker of a candle compared to the power of
Jesus. We see a glimpse of it here as the crowds are bringing the sick to
Him, and all who come are healed, just by a touch of the edge of His
garment. Let’s look at a couple of the details.
Mark is describing the exploding popularity of Jesus at this stage of the
ministry in Galilee. He says “…wherever He came, in villages, cities, or
countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplace…” What a
contrast to the ministry of Jesus in His hometown of Nazareth at the beginning
of chapter 6! Remember that Mark told us, “And he could do
no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and
healed them…” (Mark 6:5). Why could He do no miracles
there? It seems that the residents didn’t think this hometown boy could do
anything for their friends, so they didn’t bother to bring them out in public
places for Jesus to do His works of power and heal them. They were indifferent,
unbelieving. And Mark tells us that Jesus “marveled” at their unbelief!
Throughout the rest of Galilee, the crowds were coming, bringing the sick, and
laying them in public places where Jesus was expected to pass.
“…they implored Him…” Grammatically, it seems that
the ones doing the “asking” were not the sick, but those who brought them and
laid them in Jesus’ path. Not only had they brought their needy friends and
relatives to Jesus, but they were “imploring” Jesus on their behalf! Think
of our ministry to our own oikos, our extended household,
family, neighbors, and friends. Are we imploring God
on their behalf? How these people must have loved the sick that they were
bringing to meet Jesus! And they were also asking Jesus to help them. We’ve
been encouraging our church family to embrace these same ministry opportunities
toward our friends, relatives, and neighbors, starting with prayer!
Have you listed the 8 to 15 people close to you, and begun praying for them?
“…the hem of His garment…” (see Num 15:38,39; Zech
8:21-23). Back when we were looking at the story Jairus, we saw the suffering
woman touch Jesus’ garment and be healed. The tassels on a Jewish man’s garment
is mentioned in Numbers 15:37-41…
37 The
LORD said to Moses, 38"Speak to the people of Israel, and
tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their
generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each
corner. 39 And it shall be a tassel for you to
look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD, to do them, not to
follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore
after. 40 So you shall remember and do all my
commandments, and be holy to your God. 41 I am the
LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am
the LORD your God."
Chris Wright, in his book The Mission of God, comments on
Zechariah 8, another key Old Testament passage that is echoed in our context in
Mark…
Zechariah 8 also
promises that God will return once more to Zion to dwell with his people (Zech
8:3). The covenant relationship will thus be restored (Zech 8:7-8). The
result is that the curse will change to blessing. Echoes of the Abrahamic
promise surface in verse 13. But the chapter concludes with the picture of the
nations urgently encouraging one another to go find the Lord where he may be
found—among the people where he dwells. This may be centripetal, but it is
certainly also missional. People will clamor to join those who know the living
God. God dwelling among his people should be the most attractive force on earth. (Mission,
p.339).
Read chapter
8 of Zechariah if you have a chance this week, but for now look at Zechariah
8:20-23, and listen for echoes of this story of Jesus in Mark…
20 "Thus
says the LORD of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, even the inhabitants of many
cities. 21 The inhabitants of one city shall go to
another, saying, 'Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the LORD and to
seek the LORD of hosts; I myself am going.' 22 Many
peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem
and to entreat the favor of the LORD. 23 Thus says
the LORD of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall
take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, 'Let us go with you, for we have heard
that God is with you.'"
Zechariah
is talking about the future kingdom when the Messiah will reign from Jerusalem,
but remember that as Jesus walked on earth, He was announcing that the kingdom
was at hand, because He, the King, was present. By grace we too have taken
hold of the robe of a Jew, Jesus, the promised Seed of the woman, the
descendant of Abraham who would bless the nations, the Righteous Son who walked
in holiness, the King who would have an eternal kingdom!
“…as many as touched it were healed [saved]…”
The context is clearly talking about the miraculous healing of
the sick who were brought to Jesus, and who touched the hem of His garment. His
compassion and his power is revealed by the healing of all who reach out to
Him. H.A. Ironside said,
God incarnate was walking about in
the midst of His people, and it was His delight to relieve their sufferings and
to cure them of their diseases. His saving-health was manifested wherever He
went. Yet, alas, all this failed to convince the leaders that their
long-waited-for Messiah had come to deliver them.
The
hard hearts of the leaders will come out again in Mk 7. Here Jesus is offering
healing and life to the people. This story evokes another scene in the book of
Numbers, when God sent judgement on the grumbling people. We read in Num
21:6-9,
6 Then
the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that
many people of Israel died. 7 And the people came to
Moses and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and
against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us." So
Moses prayed for the people. 8 And the LORD said to
Moses, "Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is
bitten, when he sees it, shall live." 9 So
Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone,
he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
Provision
was made: Look and live! We don’t know, but could there have been some who
refused to look, or who thought that it was silly to think a bronze snake on a
pole could help them, and didn’t bother to even look? Jesus referred to this
scene when He said in John 3:14-15, “And
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be
lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have
eternal life."
The issue was faith. And so, Mark tells
us that as many as “touched the fringe of Jesus’ garment were healed.”
The Greek verb used here, sozo, has the primary meaning of “save.”
In fact, the first use of that verb in the NT occurs in Matthew 1:21 describing
the work the coming Child would accomplish, “She
will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his
people from their sins." The same word is used.
Here the “healing” that Jesus would do
is described as primarily spiritual, He would “save His people from their
sins”! The connection between “healing” and our sin problem was stated by
the prophet Isaiah 7 centuries before…
5 But
he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon
him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we
are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone
astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all… (Isaiah 53:5-6). [Why did
He come? To save!]
What
is God saying to me in this passage? The BIG Idea
we see here is that Jesus is the revelation of God, God incarnate, and He alone
is able to bring healing and life—eternal life, abundant life—to all who
believe. Have you trusted Him?
What
would God have me to do in response to this passage? First
of all…
1) He is
the great I AM, the God who saves. This same Jesus, who healed the
sick, who fed the multitudes, who calmed the sea and walked on the water,
came to meet our deepest need. He came to resolve our sin problem, and to make
it possible for fallen humans to be reconciled to our Holy God. The
provision has been made, his death was the perfect, sufficient sacrifice for
sin. Have you reached out your hand and touched the fringe of His garment?
Have you believed in Him as your Savior and Lord? The promise of God is “Whoever
calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!”
2) Let’s be reminded again of the friends, relatives, and neighbors who
brought their loved ones to Jesus, and who “implored Him” that they might touch
the fringe of His garment and be healed. Shouldn’t we love our friends enough
to do the same, praying for them, and by every means possible, seeking to bring
them to Jesus? That is what authentic Christianity looks like! We’ve
experienced God’s grace, and we are compelled to tell others! Only He can meet
their deepest need!
3) Let us worship Him as we share in the Table. On this first Sunday we
remember the Sacrifice that made that salvation available to those who believe.
Why did He come? God spared not the Son, but delivered Him up for us all… This
is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the
world that we might live through Him. AMEN.
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